8/10/2009

Woodstock Festival ~ Happy 40th Birthday!

Living in Woodstock, I am often asked about the festival that took place in 1969. Some are disappointed when I tell them that the festival didn't actually take place here but rather in Bethel, NY. The founder of the festival, Michael Lang is from Woodstock. An interesting book provides much of the backstory on the making of Woodstock is called "Taking Woodstock: A True Story of a Riot, a Concert, and a Life." Written by Elliot Tiber in 2007 with Tom Monte, it reveals much of the wheeling and dealing that went on behind the scenes in order to secure a site for the concert. The movie Taking Woodstock based on Tiber's memoir will arrive in theaters on August 28, 2009.

Today in WWD Fashion, there is an article and an interesting video about the fashions coming out of those days and how they have lasted and are still seen in today's fashions.Woodstock at 40: Fields of Fashion

Dolls' fashions have certainly been influenced by the aura of the hippie. The doll that immediately comes to mind is from Mattel's Great Fashions of the 20th Century, "Peace & Love 70s Barbie." This doll was issued in 2001.

I should have kept this gal as she is fetching some really pretty prices now.

Come to Woodstock! Look me up and I'll meet you in town. But don't expect to find the festival. What you will find are street musicians, drummers, Grandpa Woodstock (very strange man), cute boutiques, a great quilt supply store, head shops, original art of every description, a great store for Flax clothing, a well known candle shop, Birkenstocks, incensed atmosphere, ice cream, lots of dogs, a few wandering hippies, beautiful scenery and lots of other tourists. Of course if you come on the weekend you are sure to get rain and mud. It's a tradition.

If you know of any dolls with a hippie vibe, please post a link in the comments. I'd love to add more doll pictures to this post.

The manufacturer was Ideal Toys and she was called "Harmony, the Music-Makin' Doll." Her outfits are adorable and she's got nicely articulated arms. She's the same size as Cissy at 21". I found this brief video of a working Harmony doll on Youtube:

Thanks so much, Catherine, for this information!

Added on August 12->

A friend just sent me this picture of a doll dressed in hippie style. She's not sure if it's Daisy or Willow designed by Doug James. I think it's Willow.

7 comments:

I am a hippie doll FREAK and still collect the 1960's/70's Ideal Crissy Family line, which often have a Hippie vibe to them.

But one of my fave Hippie-type dolls is Ideal's original, authentic, 1972 "Harmony" (is that a free-love name for you or what?)! If you might remember her, she is a folksinger doll that came with her own guitar, wearing "birkie"-type sandals.

Two of Ideal's extra outfits for her had a very fun Hippie vibe to them. Alas, Ward's (remember them?) catalog outfits did not.

Here is a link to some wonderful info on Harmony:http://crissyandbeth.com/Harmony.html

Yes I saw WWD article too. WWD and style.com has been mentioning about Woodstock and hippie fashion. Style.com pressing it so much that I wonder if the next season, fall/ winter 2010, we'll see more of hippie fashion trend. Terri, did you get to see the movie preview at Woodstock fest? I missed it. I found out too late and it was the only show. I can't believe we missed it. We live part time in Woodstock. Where are you in Woodstock? Have you been there long? Do you happen to know the story of that abandon doll store on rt 28? Thanks for posting this.

To IRIS BLAKK:Go to my profile and look on the left hand side of the page. There is a link to email me. There are no technical difficulties. If you want to send me your email address by posting it in a comment, that's fine. I will copy it down and not publish it here.Terri

I have a Posie Doll by Ideal in hippie garb, wearing a red fringed vest in an unopened box and a C & C Doll Company's Wendy Doll (she wears a ribbon that says I'm a Go Go Doll). Her box is mint, Posie's box is damaged, but both dolls have never been played with and are MIB.

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When I switched photo servers a year ago, many of my images were lost in a black hole. If you are going back in time throughout my blog, you will come across these black holes. It's unfortunate but it would take me a huge amount of time to identify and republish the images. If there is a specific one you are very interested in, email me with the date of the post and I will try to get it for you.Thanks for your continued interest in my blog!Terri